e91 335i. 14k miles. My Unicorn.

e91 335i. 14k miles. My Unicorn.

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Sir_Dave

Original Poster:

1,495 posts

212 months

Wednesday 5th February 2020
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Have now picked up the 335i from storage, so few pictures/thoughts so far biggrin

Untitled by Sir_Dave, on Flickr

Untitled by Sir_Dave, on Flickr

Just 335i things.

Untitled by Sir_Dave, on Flickr

Untitled by Sir_Dave, on Flickr

As you can see above, the journey back was eventful, id also forgotten my Carly adapter which wasnt ideal. Speedo basically starting wobbling, speed changing constantly, so was thinking "oh st!", then got the xmas tree lights and the dashboard of doom, then cruise stopped working. Car held speed fine by itself though, so assumed abs sensor or similar. Get home and wheel speed sensor was confirmed - the one that the dealer fitted before sale, so it was either a super part, or not fitted correctly. Will sort this week:

Untitled by Sir_Dave, on Flickr

M135i now sold, e90 335i going in the next couple of weeks:

Untitled by Sir_Dave, on Flickr

Initial thoughts now ive done 700 miles in it (more than it did in the 12 months previously!) are:

1. It still smells of fuel (i think some has been split inside, there are no obvious leaks and/or damp patches anywhere), although its now fuel mixed with magic tree
2. The gearbox is pretty st compared to the M135i - Ill be putting XHP stage 2/3 as a matter of urgency once i find my Ctek.
3. I miss comfort/sport modes from the M135i (& the e90 M3) in terms of the chassis/throttle/noise changes.
4. The steering is far slower than the M135i, but it has sooooooo much more actual feel.
5. Because of the gearbox, it doesnt feel that quick, deffo slower than the 1er currently.
6. There is a shed load more space in the back seats than the M135i. Plus the boot is far more useful.
7. The silver cube trim is awful against the lemon leather, but i dont think wood will suit it. Mind have to try and find some piano black, but its always £££'s!!!
8. Considering its low mileage, the interior is pretty dirty/grim in places and a few pieces of trim are damaged/need replacing.
9. No combox, so no music streaming/album art etc is annoying, need to get one bought and fitted.
10. The standard speakers are st. Alpine retrofit or MBQuart/Vibe setup like the 335d will be fitted at some point.

Despite all of the above, it genuinely feels like ive bought a new e91 335i. Everything just feels so tight and new, especially the suspension/steering etc, no knocks, rattles or bumps. My only question now is whether to keep up the service history at BMW or not. It needs a oil/brake fluid service now, but A. its only done 2k miles/2 years since the last one and B. i really hate taking my cars down there. If i want to put warranty on it, or sell it at any point, having FSH would be useful, so i could take it to a specialist for the better "experience", but then, im paying nearly BMW money, so might as well go to BMW. Or i could just keep it forever and do it myself.

So all in all, like the other 335i, its currently a good car, that will be made into a very good car over time. And everyone loves a good project!

Shaoxter

4,100 posts

126 months

Wednesday 5th February 2020
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You don't need FBMWSH to take out a BMW warranty, but you do need to use genuine parts obviously. My local BMW dealer are happy for me to supply the oil and filter (where the big markups are) and just charge labour, although this doesn't apply everywhere as some places won't do that.

Court_S

13,173 posts

179 months

Wednesday 5th February 2020
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I do like an E91, especially the 335.

I tried to find one a few years ago but the were all dogs, so I gave up and bought an E90 330 instead. I think these have aged really well; I like the relative simplicity of the interior but agree re the cube trim. It’s horrible. Mine had the brushed aluminium which was much nicer.

I think the E9x is a nice sized car; the F30 courtesy car I had for a week whilst mine was in the body shop was bloody massive in comparison. It also highlighted how much auto boxes have moved on. I didn’t mine the ZF6 until it drove a ZF8.

Looking back, I wish I’d not given into my other half demands of selling the 330. It was sound and in good nice, plus it was my favourite colour combo of Le Mans blue with Dakota Lemon leather. Oh well.

Re the fuel smell, has the vent pipe split?

austinsmirk

5,597 posts

125 months

Wednesday 5th February 2020
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given its previous owner, I think you should do it up like Del Boy's Capri Ghia.

get some windscreen wiper boots on it, static strips, furry dice, seat covers

Del/Rachael on a sun strip in the windscreen

lovely jubliee.

JakeT

5,469 posts

122 months

Wednesday 5th February 2020
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Dave if you need a Ctek, let me know. You can borrow mine. I still need to get the combox sorted on mine. hehe

Looks like a good example, with the standard room for improvement.

Sir_Dave

Original Poster:

1,495 posts

212 months

Thursday 6th February 2020
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Abs is now fixed courtesy of a £46 Pagid wheel speed sensor.

Apparently the part on the right was replaced at the point i was sold the car, 700 dry miles ago rolleyeslaugh


Untitled by Sir_Dave, on Flickr

Shaoxter said:
You don't need FBMWSH to take out a BMW warranty, but you do need to use genuine parts obviously. My local BMW dealer are happy for me to supply the oil and filter (where the big markups are) and just charge labour, although this doesn't apply everywhere as some places won't do that.
Yeah, i guess my issue with it is that if it goes into BMW, itll have BMW staff working on it hehe
I probably wont run with warranty anyway, as its £450, plus £250 per repair, so £700 of repairs per year before breakeven point, but then if i ever sold it, as its on such low mileage, the next owner might want the benefit of it, so its really 6 of one, half a dozen of the other!

JakeT said:
Dave if you need a Ctek, let me know. You can borrow mine. I still need to get the combox sorted on mine. hehe
Looks like a good example, with the standard room for improvement.
Have found it now!
Cant believe you still havent fitted a combox lol, i'll be putting one in this soon if you want to come along and do yours at the same time ...

Court_S said:
Looking back, I wish I’d not given into my other half demands of selling the 330. It was sound and in good nice, plus it was my favourite colour combo of Le Mans blue with Dakota Lemon leather. Oh well.

Re the fuel smell, has the vent pipe split?
Le Mans with lemon is perfection!!! But nice on impossible to find lol.
Fuel wise, have checked the breather, is fine when tank is full as well. Its really stumping me actually, all areas around the injectors/fuel sensor are dry, both LPFP fuel pump & regulator are dry, vent hose is ok, so all the usual spots are ok. Thinking that perhaps fuel was split somewhere in the car - probably need to put some UV dye in the tank and see where it pops up i guess scratchchin


Dannbodge

2,172 posts

123 months

Thursday 6th February 2020
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The warranty (allianz/bmw/modial etc) is worth its weight in gold.

My premium was £50pm with £100 excess for the top level of cover.

When my waterpump went and I asked them to inspect the wastegate rattle as well, the warranty bill was in excess of £4k.

You should look at getting the M3 DCT steering wheel too. It has proper paddles rather than the push/pull ones as fitted on the normal E9x and is much nicer to hold etc.


Edited by Dannbodge on Thursday 6th February 11:42

Manmoths

87 posts

87 months

Friday 7th February 2020
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Dannbodge said:
The warranty (allianz/bmw/modial etc) is worth its weight in gold.

My premium was £50pm with £100 excess for the top level of cover.

When my waterpump went and I asked them to inspect the wastegate rattle as well, the warranty bill was in excess of £4k.

You should look at getting the M3 DCT steering wheel too. It has proper paddles rather than the push/pull ones as fitted on the normal E9x and is much nicer to hold etc.


Edited by Dannbodge on Thursday 6th February 11:42
Later LCI model had the proper paddles too, my 2012 335d E91 has them. The crossover years like Dave's has the older, pre-LCI push/pull things.

Sir_Dave

Original Poster:

1,495 posts

212 months

Monday 2nd March 2020
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After the ABS sensor, here we have some more excellent bodging ...

Most impressive given this car has only ever been worked on by those lovely people at Cooper BMW as it was under warranty rolleyes

This is the panel next to the sunroof buttons, hidden behind it is the bluetooth microphone.
The unit has been off in the past for some reason. When it was removed it was broken somehow, as you can see below:

Untitled by Sir_Dave, on Flickr

This annoyed me greatly, so some overnight parts from Germany were bought:

Untitled by Sir_Dave, on Flickr

Upon removing the panel, it became apparent that when it was removed previously before and cracked, the numbskull that removed it also broke all the clips that hold it into the roof, so they glued the panel to the microphone module, then glued that to the roof hehe

Untitled by Sir_Dave, on Flickr

This made seperating it rather difficult:

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But we got there in the end.

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Et voila. All fixed

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Whilst i realise that this is rather a lot of photos for a simple task, the absolute retardedness of the initial repair amused me somewhat idea

And then onto last weekend ... after the ZF8 in the M135i, i just couldnt cope with the stty gearbox anymore. Standard 335i still has 300bhp, so shouldnt feel like a milk float at low speed.

With that in mind, i bought a new toy, specifically a Watson Power Max 45NF power supply. Now, over the years, ive done shed loads of coding/updating/mapping using a CTEK MXS 5.0 battery charger, and/or just on the cars power, but well, it always felt like i was sailing a little too close to the wind, especially when flashing software updates for 30+ minutes. This “cb radio” power supply can provide 40 amps continuous at 13.8 volts so the car battery stays nice & stable voltage wise for as long as i need.


Untitled by Sir_Dave, on Flickr

1st floor flat problems (extension lead out of living room window):

Untitled by Sir_Dave, on Flickr

Plan for the day? An XHP flash for the gearbox. Initial backup (circa 30 mins), software flash (20 mins), then map flash (2-3 mins). I had stage 2 last time on the 330d, but was really undecided whether to go stage 2 or stage 3 on the 335i, so bought a "Super Licence" which is maps 1/2/3 for £219.

Backing up:

Untitled by Sir_Dave, on Flickr

Ampage draw was between 15-20A throughout:

Untitled by Sir_Dave, on Flickr

Decided to go with Stage 2 initially:

Untitled by Sir_Dave, on Flickr

Quick spin around the block and it worked well, much improved torque convertor lock up, quicker changes etc, but still no ZF8. Back home and loaded Stage 3. Now have 50% faster shifts in S/M modes, proper throttle blip on downshifts and instant paddle reaction (also took 5 mins to rewire the shifters so they are left/down and right/up).

Gearbox is now drastically improved, so would suggest whilst stage 2 is ideal for diesels, stage 3 is better for a petrol.



Edited by Sir_Dave on Saturday 14th March 00:41

Usget

5,426 posts

213 months

Monday 2nd March 2020
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Interesting - are there any negative impacts on the gearbox to doing the remap?

m20b25

59 posts

115 months

Monday 2nd March 2020
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Sir_Dave said:
First owner was actually John Sullivan OBE, i.e. the bloke who wrote Only Fools & Horses beer
The reason its done so little miles is that he died in 2011, so my assumption is that its just sat in his wifes garage since then - barring its annual trup to BMW for an MOT and/or service !!
he had good taste! Here another he spec'd from new: https://forums.m3cutters.co.uk/threads/top-spec-lo...


cheddar

4,637 posts

176 months

Monday 2nd March 2020
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Regarding being underwhelmed by the performance I wonder how crappy the fuel left in the tank and lines was given such low annual mileage?

JakeT

5,469 posts

122 months

Tuesday 3rd March 2020
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I can't believe a BMW dealer made such a fk up of that panel near the interior lights. Not a hard job to sort if someone makes a mess of it. Especially somewhere so visible.

AceKid

281 posts

57 months

Monday 9th March 2020
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Awesome motor and a good read....I will be on the lookout for a e91 petrol myself in August...yours is the ultimate spec i will be after, but i may have to make do with a 330i. I keep looking at the ones on Bespoke BMW website.....

Jimmy Recard

17,540 posts

181 months

Monday 9th March 2020
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Was it no VAT, no money back, no guarantee?

Sir_Dave

Original Poster:

1,495 posts

212 months

Monday 6th April 2020
quotequote all
Usget said:
Interesting - are there any negative impacts on the gearbox to doing the remap?
To be honest, i havent really driven it much since i did the update, but initial thoughts are that its a bit less smooth on gearchanges, but far far quicker between them!! It thoroughly moderises the box though, such a massive improvement it was a no brainer to do it if thats makes sense - XHP (gearbox) at £200 or so and MHD (engine) for £150 are pretty much no brainers on the e90 platform imho yes

m20b25 said:
he had good taste! Here another he spec'd from new: https://forums.m3cutters.co.uk/threads/top-spec-lo...
Now that is also absolutely lovely!!

cheddar said:
Regarding being underwhelmed by the performance I wonder how crappy the fuel left in the tank and lines was given such low annual mileage?
Perhaps, but i think it was probably more the epic ZF8 gearbox in the M135i, or the 375bhp / 575lb ft in my e91 335d that made it feel slow haha.

AceKid said:
Awesome motor and a good read....I will be on the lookout for a e91 petrol myself in August...yours is the ultimate spec i will be after, but i may have to make do with a 330i. I keep looking at the ones on Bespoke BMW website.....
Bespoke do get some lovely cars in, but they certainly know how to charge!! I just searched 3 times a day for 335i's on ebay/autotrader, i found the alerts didnt send me an email for 2-3 hours, which in this cars case, would have been too slow!!

Anyways, been a busy little bee this weekend in the sunshine. Self-isolation = more time spent tinkering with the house/car!!

First things first, whilst i love silver hex trim with alcantara, i dont like it with oyster leather, but i did have some wood in the shed from the previous 335i ...

Be gone.

Untitled by Sir_Dave, on Flickr

Ah, thats better.

Untitled by Sir_Dave, on Flickr

Eventually, i would like Diamant Schwarz or Piano Black, but at £300+ secondhand, that can wait for a bit i think.

Also gave the leather a quick going over/protect with Gliptone cleaner & conditioner. It was pretty clean already to be fair.

Untitled by Sir_Dave, on Flickr

Untitled by Sir_Dave, on Flickr

(Baby seat is behind me as it wont fit behind the passenger seat currently with my wifes pregnant lady gangster lean - that'll swop over when minime arrives)

After the inside, a much needed exterior clean was done, hadnt done it since i bought it and its clear that the dealer prep left a lot to be desired. Deffo needs a proper going over, there seems to be dried on mould/green stuff on the roof/window shuts (from sitting around for 8 years i assume) that needs something a bit stronger than soap and a washmitt to remove - any suggestions?


Untitled by Sir_Dave, on Flickr

Untitled by Sir_Dave, on Flickr

Untitled by Sir_Dave, on Flickr

Untitled by Sir_Dave, on Flickr

Untitled by Sir_Dave, on Flickr

For anyone wondering, the rear end is a bit low as its fully loaded with Bilstein suspension and a shed load of stuff for when we go into labour.

Also retrofitted a combox, then realised that my CIC isnt at the correct firmware level for it to work properly, so i had to pull it all back out again. Unfortunately, whilst i can use WinKFP for updates, I dont have access to an ICOM cable (needed for this particular upgrade) and wont be paying £300+ for one anytime soon - so will have to send the unit off for that to be done. Again, that can wait until we are out of lockdown.

Looking lovely this morning.

Untitled by Sir_Dave, on Flickr

Have a few things in the pipeline now, but due to lockdown/impending baby arrival, they will definately have to wait for a little while.

Edited by Sir_Dave on Monday 6th April 15:18

JakeT

5,469 posts

122 months

Monday 6th April 2020
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That looks well tasty. If I'd have known I'd have bought your silver cube trim from you. I just bought an LCI set and fitted it in mine. hehe

For the window rubbers I use an old toothbrush dunked in the wash water and then 'brush' the rubbers. Hold it parallel to the window and it pull the stuff out really well. Then it can be rinsed away.

Davie_GLA

6,551 posts

201 months

Monday 6th April 2020
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Lovely car. You found a cracker.

I’ve got a 2009 730d and am toying with the idea of a remap. I did the same to a 525 I had a while ago and it was a marked improvement.

Noting that you paid a couple hundred for the super license I’m assuming you will use this more than once but for someone like me who will likely do a remap and maybe get Carly for faults am I just better sticking to a 3rd party remap outfit?

Sir_Dave

Original Poster:

1,495 posts

212 months

Tuesday 7th April 2020
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JakeT said:
That looks well tasty. If I'd have known I'd have bought your silver cube trim from you. I just bought an LCI set and fitted it in mine. hehe

For the window rubbers I use an old toothbrush dunked in the wash water and then 'brush' the rubbers. Hold it parallel to the window and it pull the stuff out really well. Then it can be rinsed away.
Will give that a go with the windows then, a friend also suggested soaking the dried on roof dirt in "APC" and giving it a scrub, so we shall see.
In terms of the old parts, i'm keeping everything i take off im afraid (i always do), in case i sell it and want it to go back to standard yes
The trims are unbelievably immaculate though, literally not a single mark anywhere, far better than the wood ones i put on hehe

Davie_GLA said:
Lovely car. You found a cracker.

I’ve got a 2009 730d and am toying with the idea of a remap. I did the same to a 525 I had a while ago and it was a marked improvement.

Noting that you paid a couple hundred for the super license I’m assuming you will use this more than once but for someone like me who will likely do a remap and maybe get Carly for faults am I just better sticking to a 3rd party remap outfit?
Thanks!! It was a case of lots of searching and pure luck to find it!!
Re: the remap, gearbox wise, i bought the super licence for XHP as i really couldnt decide whether i wanted stg2 or 3 (its still vin locked for one car). Stg 2 was perfectly fine on my old 330d, so id probably recommend that for your 730d i think, Stg3 adds a little more harshness and rev matching which being honest, isnt needed on the derv. In terms of how you load it, if your doing the gearbox, there is literally no reason to pay someone else to do it (as long as you have a power source/android phone of course), its really super easy. Same with the MHD engine remap if you had a suitable car.

As you've got a diesel, you'll have to go to a 3rd party for the engine however and i would thoroughly research who you use, my old 335d had a DMS map which worked well for the previous owner for years, then someone called SLT "updated it" when they removed the EGR/DPF and it was a right mess afterwards. Smokey as hell on idle as the EGR wasnt switched off properly. Had BWChiptune re-write the whole thing and it was night and day different afterwards!!

Black line is standard
Blue line is DMS/SLT
Red line is BWChiptune
(these are back to back on the same day, same rolling road btw)


Untitled by Sir_Dave, on Flickr

Definately do your research on the mapper and choose someone recommended on the forums if possible thumbup

Rod200SX

8,090 posts

178 months

Tuesday 7th April 2020
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I can testify as to how easy remaps & coding can be done on these. I had some electrical issues with my 335i last year and we removed the JB4 that was fitted by a previous owner & I ran about on the standard map for about 5 days and thought 'nope, enough is enough' and went with MHD. First remap took about 50 minutes all in but transforms the car from standard performance. you can get anywhere from 40-120HP from spending less than £300 on an app. It's mad. I'm manual so obviously cannot do the gearbox flash but from everything I've seen it's night and day. A lot of the N54 guys in the states are auto & it really is the first thing folk do before adding power. Stage 3 can be a bit intense from what I've read but stage 2 is a bit more friendly/comfy.

Good you've gone for all the options, you can pick and choose depending on your mood, almost!

Very cool car, love the rear end on the E91 & glad this has gone to a good owner that knows them well.